About the New Widget to the Left…

I typically don’t get into to too many of the gimmicky social networking type things. Mostly because I don’t think anything can substitute for real interaction between real people. Despite those feelings though, there is one thing that’s kind of captured my fancy lately: Twitter.

Twitter is a service that allows you articulate what you are up to at that very moment using 140 characters or less. For the most part it is instantaneous and, in the right hands, it can be a really useful tool to allow folks to have snapshots of your day-to-day. For me, I’ve become really attached to it because it presents a really cool opportunity for on the fly writing exercises. You’d be pretty amazed at how hard it is to describe what’s going on around you or in your head in 140 characters or less. Oh and did I mention that everytime you hit the space bar it counts as a character? Challenging! But stimulating and fun too. It also affords you guys an opportunity to get updates (albeit tiny tid-bits) through a WordPress widget I’m using call “Twitter Tools“.

You’ll find it off to the left. It’s label “Transmissions from the Road of Life”, and in it you’ll find thoughts, what music I’m listening to, what I’m up to that very moment!

As I get better at the format, I’m looking forward to branching out and using the medium in other creative ways! We’ll see, like I said, it’s kind of a challenge. When I get an iPhone (probably in the next 365 days ) then you’ll see some really frequent thoughts, notes and reflections, on the go and pretty much in real time.

It might end up being more “fish bowl” than I would like, but, so far, I’m surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying it!